A northwest Indiana apple orchard is at the center of a social media firestorm after managers asked a transgender patron with a service dog to leave.

In a Facebook post and video that has been shared more than 2,000 times and drawn more than 3,000 comments, Val Holdahl said she and her Chicago friends, including one with a service dog, were thrown out of the County Line Orchard in Hobart on Saturday.

"What we hoped would be a fun, carefree day turned sour as the owners of County Line Orchards and the Hobart police ejected a black trans woman with a disability from this property," Holdahl said. "This is discrimination."

A vice president of the company that owns County Line Orchard said guest safety drove the decision.

Tom Collins Jr. of Hobart-based Luke Oil said parents with children were concerned because the woman had what appeared to be a pit bull on a retractable leash. Staff, he said, asked the woman whether the animal was a service dog and what service it was providing.

The woman did not cooperate, Collins said.

"It is not uncommon for us to have visitors with service dogs on property," Collins said in an email to IndyStar. "Due to a lack of cooperation and inconsistencies ... we made the decision to escort the dog and the guest from the property."

Under federal law, service dogs must be allowed into workplaces, schools, restaurants, hotels and other public places even if those places ban pets.

To determine whether a dog is a service animal, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Right Division, staff at such public places may ask only whether the dog is a service animal required because of a disability and what work or task the dog has been trained to perform.